Baby Check In: Four Weeks!

WEEK: 4 - almost 1 month old!

WEIGHT: 7lb 6.5oz (At last check-up)

LENGTH: 20 1/4" (At last check-up)

HEAD: 14 1/4" (haven't re-checked)

MILESTONES: Little Monster is learning to play with his tongue and talk/coo. It's the most adorable thing to watch him react to my talking to him by cooing and moving about. We also celebrated our first Christmas! 

WHAT YOU'RE UP TO: I actually got to do some grown-up work today and had a client at our place for a makeover. It was amazing to be able to do what I love to do. Baby slept through the whole thing too, which made my life even easier!

EATING: C-man is still a champ at eating. I'm really trying to pump more so I can build a supply for when I go back to work and so Daddy can feed him. 

SLEEPING: This week sleeping was pretty good! We only had one night of stay-up-and-party hell. But, I had caffeine that night so it was probably my fault. Sometimes I just need a coke!

DIAPERING: CDing is still going great, I ordered some CJs BUTTer online and used it for half a day before I realized it was giving Little Monster a horrible rash. The only challenge CDing has brought to our house is finding a butt paste that works and I can use with the CDs. Most of your typical creams (Desitin, Bag Balm - which we used while we were in sposies and loved) can't be used with CDs or it'll affect the absorbency of the diaper. Need to do more research.

VISITS/OUTINGS: No visitors this week. But we did travel to Great Gpa & Gma Quinn's, The Johnson's, Gma Pugh's, Great Gma Griswold's, and our friends The Laubhan's to visit for Christmas. Lots of traveling and lots of family/friend's. 

MOMMY: I've been making an effort to do more around the house now that we've got more of a routine going. I'm so sick of our house being a disaster so I'm doing something about it! I still nap once with C-man during the day, but I'm finally not sleeping all.day.long! 

WEEKLY PHOTO: 

Learning to play with his tongue!

His First Day

I wanted to try out this Picasa photo editing software in preperation for his first month collage I want to do... so I figured I'd do one of his first day of life. I can't believe how much he's grown! It's unreal. 

A Bowl Full of Lemons: 21 Days to Getting Organized

Join me in taking the 21 day Challenge to getting Organized over at A Bowl Full of Lemons!

While you're there, check out her blog... I just spent the last hour reading ALL of her posts gather ideas to organize & clean my own home and life. 

I desperately need a "Mobile" Command Center to organize the PILES of paper on my desk, in our kitchen, and on our dining room table. No joke, it's terrible. Looking forward to doing this ASAP!

My laundry room doesn't even HAVE system... it's a TERRIBLE mess. Add this to the list too.

I've actually already started making some of these magazine storage boxes for my new office shelves (will post about these soon!), but I had to include them because they're so cute!

I'm very excited and hope I can keep up with the 21 day challenge with a newborn! 

Newborn Photos

Once again, we have some amazing photos done by my dear friend Shannon of Shalynne Imaging. She did our Maternity photos back in October and I couldn't wait to get newborn photos done once our little monster was finally here! Check them out :)

CLICK ON "READ MORE" BELOW TO SEE MORE!

Baby Check In: Three Weeks

WEEK: 3

WEIGHT: 7lb 6.5oz (At last check-up)

LENGTH: 20 1/4" (At last check-up)

HEAD: 14 1/4" (up 1/4" from birth)

MILESTONES: I'm pretty sure we went through our 3 week growth spurt this week. Little Monster is starting to make really great eye contact and he turns his head when I call his name! He's also really enjoying "play time" in his bassinet after our morning feeding. It has a mobile with lights and music and he just stares at it until it's finished. If he's not swaddled in his blanket, he even reaches his arms up towards the spinning animals. It's adorable!

WHAT YOU'RE UP TO: I'm trying to establish some sort of routine in our house. I'd say it's pretty much working, except for a day here or there where we're up all night with Little Monster.

EATING: Eating is going really well. We feed about every 2 1/2-3 hours depending on his nap schedule. Lil man has a bit of acid reflux, so I've got to be sure to keep him upright after feedings so he doesn't spit up too bad. 

SLEEPING: Besides a night or two of pure torture and no sleep - Little Monster is a great sleeper. He sleeps about 3 hours at a time and sometimes at night he'll go 6 hours straight before waking up. Also, Little Monster SNORES! Just like his daddy. Psh, I'm doomed!

DIAPERING: We started cloth diapering this last week and we love it. We launder about every two days, his bum is nice and soft and free of any rashes, and he's just too cute with his little fluffy butt!

VISITS/OUTINGS: We try to get out once a day or every other day for Momma's sanity. This week we went for round two of our newborn photos with Shalynne Imaging. We also went to the doctor so I could get my incision looked at (it's fine). 

MOMMY: Mommy is starting to feel a little back to normal. I think my hormones are finally leveling out. Even though I didn't get TOO crazy, there were a few days where I cried for a solid hour from just being overwhelmed. My husband is the best support though!

WEEKLY PHOTO: 

He fell asleep in Daddy's arms and I hardly remembered to take a pic last night! So, this will have to do :)

Dollar Store Monogram Christmas Wreath

I got some supplies from the Dollar Store the other night to make a Christmas wreath. I've never made a wreath before before, so this was my first attempt! I have to say, I'm pretty happy with it!

Supplies:
Wreath - $1
Garland/Tinsel - $1
Christmas Ornaments - had on hand (came from Target's dollar section)
Hot Glue
Total Cost: $2!!

How To:

1. I wrapped the wreath in the tinsel/garland and hot glued in a few different places to keep it together.

2. Then I hot glued the ornaments in no particular - but totally random order.

3. I decided it wasn't enough just by itself so I glued some left over ornaments together to make  "C" for our family name.

Simple as that :)

I know I'm WAY late on the holiday DIY, but I have a 3w old baby to blame for that :)

Just ordered our birth annoucements!

Inky Chic Blue Birth Announcement

Create beautiful birth announcements with Shutterfly.

View the entire collection of cards.

My Birth Story

After my failed induction last week as well as my zero-progress & regression news at my appointment on the 29th, we scheduled a c-section for 12/1 for a few different reasons (blood pressure was rising after my failed induction, dr didn't want me going over 41 weeks, and I was full term).

We went in at 5:30am and was sent right up to L&D for admittance. It was so amazing, my L&D/OR Nurse got my IV in the first try - which compared to my visit last week where they stuck me FIVE times before they got it, was awesome. After all the boring admit stuff, at 7:30 I walked in to the OR with sweaty palms and a pretty high heart rate from being nervous.

They sat me on the table, put a really warm blanket on my shoulders and my Doctor stood in front of me holding my shoulders & rubbing them. He gave me a little pep talk, telling me how great of a mommy I've been thus far and we're only minutes away from having our baby boy in our hands finally - that got my heart rate down quickly. He then started talking about his trip to Cabo (the next day!) that he was taking their whole office to. We got to talking about Jamaica and our honeymoon last year... all this was happening while the anesthesiologist (who was AMAZING) was injecting the numbing needles in my back - which was what I was most scared of.

After a few tries with placement the anesthesiologist finally got my spinal in and within a minute my toes were tingly and warm. I laid down on the table and it took about 10 minutes to go completely numb. 7:46am is when they made the incision and at 8:08am our beautiful baby boy was born! It went by really fast between my hubby and the anesthesiologist talking me through what was happening and just talking about random things. He was wedged up under my ribs still, so high the assisting Dr had to really push him down to get him out.

I could hear Collin's first cry as soon as they pulled his head through the incision. My heart MELTED and at that very moment, our world changed forever. He had a strong cry, too! They took him straight to the warmer after giving us a first glance and he cried a little bit as the nurses were cleaning him up. I started talking to him and calling his name (we did this a lot during pregnancy) and he turned his head in my direction right away. They put him on my chest and we snapped a few photos.

DH & DS went to the nursery for all his weigh-in, stats, and vitals while I got put back together and stitched up. It took about 20 minutes to get stitched & stapled (about 30 staples) and then I was off to the recovery room for about an hour. I couldn't wait to see my LO so that hour went by pretty slow.

Once I was done in recovery I was taken to our room and finally got to truly hold him. We tried breast feeding right away and boy was he hungry! He latched on right away.

Recovery from the c/s hasn't been too bad. I took what many people told me very seriously - stay on top of the pain meds and don't try to be super woman. I've been on 800mg of ibuprofen every 6 hours and I alternated tylenol and oxycodone between those every 6 hours. The first day after the surgery was rough getting up and moving around so I took it pretty easy.

Since being home, I've kept the same pain med regimen except haven't needed the oxycodone. Today was the first day I haven't had hardly any pain at all.



Our doctors were quite proud!


one of his first photos!

Our December Miracle!

I'd like to introduce you to our December Miracle! 

Born December 1, 2010 via C-Section

at 8:08am weighing in 7lb 6.6oz and 19" long!

He's the best thing I've ever experienced.